ARLINGTON -- Years of relatively quiet and unnoticed work in Tarrant County led to the circumstances of Wednesday night's NIT quarterfinal.

UT-Arlington, a team in the midst of one of the best seasons in school history, was playing Cal State Bakersfield on national TV. The Mavericks were hosting the game at the College Park Center, a $78-million venue built five years ago. And most of the seats inside the venue were filled.

Photos: UTA sees remarkable season come to disappointing end as frantic rally falls short in NIT

The nearly capacity crowd cheered late in the second half as UTA tried to clinch its spot in the NIT semifinals. But the Mavericks were unable to overcome a large second-half deficit and keep their remarkable season rolling all the way to New York.

The Roadrunners won 80-76 in front of 6,336, handing UTA its only home loss this season in front of the second-largest crowd in arena history.

The year may have ended short of a trip to the NIT finals in Madison Square Garden, but Scott Cross' team showed what life could be like as a mid-major contender.

"It's just one year," Cross said. "We have to figure out how to keep it at that level. But that is a dream and a goal of mine."

Throughout the season, UTA showed glimpses that it could cause chaos in March.

The Mavericks (27-9) went on the road to knock off St. Mary's, an eventual NCAA tournament team that was ranked 12th at the time. It was UTA's first win over a ranked opponent in 29 attempts.

But after UTA lost senior guard Jalen Jones with a season-ending injury, its tournament hopes took a hit. The Mavericks fell to Texas State in the Sun Belt tournament semifinals, ending their only real shot at the school's first NCAA tournament since 2008.

Against CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday, Jones watched as the Roadrunners (25-9) jumped out to a 16-point halftime lead. UTA chipped away at the 19-point deficit in the second half and trimmed it to two with six seconds left.

But CSU Bakersfield held on, ending any hopes of a UTA-TCU matchup in the NIT championship on March 30.

"I knew their defense was going to be as good as any defense we've played all year," said Cross, whose team started sluggishly and shot 35.5 percent.

When Cross took over at his alma mater more than a decade ago, the men's basketball team was playing on a stage at Texas Hall. The team's composition, much like the arena it played in on Wednesday, looked much different.

UTA junior forward Kevin Hervey, who has received looks from NBA scouts throughout the season, has been a focal point. He started slowly against the Roadrunners, but the Sun Belt's Player of the Year scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half during UTA's late comeback.

Junior guard Erick Neal, who scored a team-high 22 points, hit some late shots to keep things interesting. But the renewed energy in the second half was unable to push UTA to a new height.

Questions now turn to sustaining the program's level and continuing the work put in over the last several years. Not only could Hervey potentially leave for the NBA, but other schools could be interested in Cross.

Despite the lowest budget of the 16 teams left in the NIT according to ESPN, Cross pushed the Mavericks within a minute of reaching the semifinals.

This year, UTA showed what it could look like as a mid-major, a team with a full arena that could contend with some of the better programs in the country.

"As a season as a whole, it was all right," Hervey said. "But we're not going to settle for nothing like this next year. We're going to try and make it to the NCAA tournament."